Mythology Exam 3 Greek Background

Thespis

The father of Greek Drama.

534 B.C.

From his name we get the word thespian which refers to an actor or actress.

Aeschylus

525 or 524 B.C-456 B.C.

Permitted two actors on stage at once.

Wrote about 70 plays.

The only three plays that survived are a trilogy called, Oresteia.

In Agamemnon, his father is killed.

In The Libation Bearers, he gets revenge for his father.

In The Furies, Orestes must atone for killing his mother.

Sophocles

496-406 B.C.

Allowed three actors to appear on stage.

He wrote Oedipus the King.

Also Oedipus at Colonnus where the blind Oedipus wander led by his daughters to atone for his sins.

Along with Antigone.

Wrote over a hundred plays during his 90 years, but, as with Aeschylus, only seven survive. 

Euripides

485-406 B.C.

Has left us 19 plays; he is believed to have written about 80

Medea and Hippolytus, as well as Electra, Alcestis, the Trojan Women, Iphigenia at Aulis, Iphigenia among the Taurians, and The Cyclops.

A satyr play, which gives us the English word satire

Aristophanes

Annual dramatic competition was held at a springtime festival honoring the god Dionysus. called The Great Dionysia.

He wrote the play Lysistrata, in which women of two warring kingdoms meet and decide that they won’t have sex with their husbands until the fighting stops.  The peace treaty is signed almost immediately.

Protagonist

the central character of the play

Conflict

refers to the main problem or challenge facing the characters.

Dramatic Irony

occurs when the audience knows something important of which a character on the stage is not aware.

Epiphany

is a sudden realization by a character of something very important.

Tragic Flaw

is a weakness in character or an error in judgment which causes the downfall of the protagonist

The three unities

This theory is based on the belief that greater intensity in a drama is achieved when events occur in as brief a time frame as possible (unity of time); when the events occur in one place, rather than shifting locations for no dramatic purpose (unity of place); and when the story is not weakened by irrelevant events, like subplots which do not enhance the overall effect of the drama (unity of action).

 

Strophe, Antistrophe, and Epode

terms which describe the structure of the choral passages.